EU Report: Russia's 'Operation Overload' Used AI Voice Clones and Fake Newscasts to Exploit French Riots

An internal EU diplomatic-service assessment says Russia's 'Operation Overload' network opportunistically exploited October's French riots by posting AI-cloned expert voices, forged newspaper headlines and fake news-report videos — some falsely claiming migrants raped protesters or that terrorist attacks loomed. Pro-Russian content on the unrest drew 2.8M views across the 10 most-viewed posts between Oct 16-18, with the operation aimed at casting French leadership as weak and authoritarian.